X Files: I Want to Believe

Posted Saturday, July 26, 2008, at 9:16 PM

I saw the new X-Files movie this afternoon. Boy, what a disappointment! The movie stars David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, Amanda Peet as ASAC Dakota Whitney, Billy Connolly as Father Joseph Crissman, and Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner as Agent Mosley Drummy.

If you didn't like the TV series, you sure won't like the movie - and if you DID like the series, you still won't like the movie.

My sister-in-law, a big X-File fan, pronounced the movie "Okay," a pretty lukewarm endorsement. Her comment was that it wasn't "eerie" enough. I agree. Most of the plot seemed to revolve around Mulder and Scully arguing back and forth over whether to believe or not to believe in the pedophile priest's physic ability. They do end up in bed together (Mulder and Scully - not the priest), but the scene is as dull as if they'd been married about 100 years.

All through the film, I kept waiting to see why Scully's attachment to her young dying patient was relevant to the main theme - and, as the screen credits rolled by, I realized that none of the scenes in the operating room really WERE relevant.

I don't know if everyone else will find Scully tedious, but I sure did.

There are some chilling (in more ways than one) scenes where several victims' cars are pushed off a narrow, snow-packed road, and the scenery is impressively icy - but so much of the movie is just not believable - even to dyed-in-the-wool X-File fans.

And that two-headed dog? Give me a break! The new Verizon commercial is scarier...

My advice is to save your money and go see a movie in the cheap seats.

I read the review. Not convinced, but I like the last line, "But what they're up to is so creepy, and the snow-covered Virginia landscapes so haunting, and the wrong-headedness of Scully so frustrating, and the FBI bureaucracy so stupid, and Mulder so brave, that the movie works like thrillers used to work, before they were required to contain villains the size of buildings."

-- Posted by goat lady on Wed, Jul 30, 2008, at 6:50 AM

Gotta agree with the review. Just not quite up to standard.

I saw "Iron Man" Sunday night. Good fun. Lots of memories of comic books under the covers by flashlight.